Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media expert, online marketing consultant, speaker and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Portfolio). She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

That's the title of the lead article in the current issue of WordBiz Report. It's provoked a flurry of responses from readers wanting to know more. Continue reading…

Tune in to The Corporate Blogging Show

The Corporate Blogging Show is now airing weekly on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business (Internet radio). Tune in live on Tuesdays at 12 noon Pacific. You can download the shows as podcasts. I'm inviting listeners to submit a question during the show via Instant Messenging. Take our little poll and tell us what your favorite IM client is.

Download Chapter 1 of The Corporate Blogging Book in Chinese

Thanks to Raven Lu Li, who lives in China and works for Accenture China, for translating Chapter 1 of my book into Chinese. Download Chapter 1 in Chinese.

TypePad's Book of the Month

The Corporate Blogging Book was TypePad's book of the month for October 2006. Listen to the podcast interview I did with Six Apart's Michael Sippey. Read the Q & A.

Live interview on Britain's Sky News

I was interviewed about corporate blogging in Sky News' London studio on October 20, 2006. Quite an experience as I'm kinda new at live TV. More…

Readers are saying… The Corporate Blogging Book is "a great read"

Nielsen BuzzMetrics' Pete Blackshaw gives The Corporate Blogging Book a thumbs up in a thoughtful review on ClickZ. A marketing manager from a Fortune 500 company writes in an email: "I read it cover-to-cover, highlighting phrases and dog-earing pages all the way through." More positive reviews and news here. Order your copy on Amazon or find it at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other bookstores.

Need a keynote or Webinar on Corporate Blogging 101 or 201?

I'm giving presentations from Florida to Brussels that demystify the blogosphere for business folk. And update what's in my book. To wit, the new corporate blogosphere is multi-media. Think YouTube.com. Call me direct at +1 202.364.5705 Eastern or email me at wordbiz(at)gmail.com to learn more about how I can work with you. Upcoming schedule.

Do you need a CEO Blogging Coach?

Bill Gates does. Get the scoop…

Steve Knowles of Marketing Acumen interviews me for his MarketingPlan 2007 teleseminar series. Learn more and sign up. Sessions include Web PR, Search Engine Marketing and Pay Per Click Advertising. I believe you can also purchase this series as recorded MP3s and PDF transcripts.

DATE: Monday Nov. 27th, 2006

TIME:  4 PM Eastern

NOTE: Purchase two copies of The Corporate Blogging Book (on Amazon or BarnesandNoble.com) and the $97 fee for the teleconference series will be waived. Email your proof of purchase to Steve Knowles at TCBB@marketingacumen.com.

Fleishman-Hillard Europe is hosting the European launch of The Corporate Blogging Book next week. I'll be speaking in Paris on Tuesday Dec. 5th on "le corporate blogging." Can't wait!

Then on Thursday Dec. 7th I take the train to Antwerp to give the keynote at the 10th anniversary celebration of NewsEngine PR, a Brussels-based PR agency. 

Fleishman-Hillard Europe is hosting a European book launch in Paris for The Corporate Blogging Book. I keynoted a session on "le corporate blogging" followed by Q & A with Fleishman clients, press, etc.

DAE: Tuesday Dec. 5th, 2006

TIME: 18h30

LOCATION: 73 boulevard Haussmann, 8eme Paris

Details on LERN's event wiki.

DATE: Wednesday Nov. 29th, 2006

TIME: 11:10 AM - 12 Noon

Location: The American Institute of Architects

Learn from the examples of established association blogs on how to take advantage of this new way of connecting with your audiences. It's all about being useful and having real conversations with your membership. You'll learn:

1. What you need to get into blogging now.
2. The three steps to launching a blog.
3. What you absolutely must avoid.

 

Tune in Tuesdays at 12 noon Pacific to listen to my new Internet radio show on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business.

On Tuesday Nov. 28th, 2006 I interview Karen Wickre, the managing editor of Google's Official Corporate Blog. Karen and I will pull the curtain to reveal what goes on behind Google's corporate blog, consistently ranked as one of the Top 20 blogs on Technorati.com. You can listen live. Or visit The Corporate Blogging Show blog to download archived shows as podcasts. 

Karen oversees 38 blogs for Google, including country blogs for China, Russia, Brazil, Poland, Japan, Korea and Italy. We'll talk about how Google's corporate blog got started and how it fits in with the company's PR strategy. We'll also dig into the nitty gritty of managing a corporate blog: ensuring a consistent "voice," choosing topics and how to keep it fresh. Join us!

Update: Wow, talk about an instant response to this article! That's the beauty of the blog format. See Comments below.

Sarah and I will try to answer more fully your questions about the specifics of creating an e-newsletter with WordPress.  Sarah has written a technical explanation on her own blog. Note that I still send the newsletter out via EmailLabs, my email service provider. All I do is copy/paste the "code" behind the WordPress page we've created. And yes I still get the reporting on click-throughs, opens, etc. via EmailLabs. - Debbie

By contributing writer (and Web designer) Sarah Lewis

Blogs and e-newsletters have a lot in common. They are both made up of valuable information presented in short article format, and they both use the Web language HTML for attractive presentation. However, HTML e-newsletters usually require some knowledge of coding. And an understanding of how to FTP files and images to a Web site. It's time consuming and not something that most folks want to mess around with.

In short, e-newsletters aren't as easy to create and update as blogs. That can make it harder to keep to a regular publishing schedule (ahem… you might have noticed that Debbie's publishing schedule has been a bit irregular of late). It makes sense, then, to take some of the easy-to-use technology that has made blogging so popular, and apply it to e-newsletters. 

No more mucking around in Dreamweaver

That's just what Debbie and I have done. When Debbie wants to create an article for her e-newsletter, she logs in to her blog site at debbieweil.com and creates a new post. She assigns the entry to a special category ("Newsletter") that we set up for this purpose. Each issue normally has several "articles." So Debbie creates a new blog post for each article (like the "entry" you're reading).

When she's ready to send out the new issue of WordBiz Report, the issue is *automatically* created for her by WordPress. We won't get into the details (unless you're really interested). Suffice it to say that we're using both the "blog entry" and "Web page" features of WordPress. Leave a Comment below if you want to know more about this.

An e-newsletter with all the benefits of a blog

Not only is it quick and easy to publish the e-newsletter, it also has all the benefits of blogging:

Readers can leave Comments

• The "comments" feature encourages conversations and feedback from newsletter readers. (Hey, you can test this out by leaving a comment below!)

You can receive the e-newsletter via RSS

• The RSS feed alerts subscribers that a new article has been published. At the same time, the blog-a-zine can be sent as an HTML email message.

Search engines can find the newsletter articles 

• Most importantly, the e-newsletter is now easily findable by search engines. That's because the "articles" are now "blog entries" and search engines love blogs.

Combining an e-newsletter with blogging technology increases "circulation" (i.e. the findability of the newsletter online) and also provides more value for current subscribers who can more easily interact and leave feedback. In short, it benefits both the publisher and the reader.

- Sarah Lewis 

Business Blogging 101 for the Annual Pre-Employment Screeners Conference.

DATE: Tuesday Nov. 14th 2006

TIME: 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM EST

LOCATION:  Clearwater, FL Sheraton Sand Key Resort

Will be speaking about blogs, books and the publishing industry at the ASJA's 2007 Annual Writers Conference.

DATE: Saturday 21 April 2007
LOCATION: New York City
VENUE: Grand Hyatt Hotel
42nd Street and Grand Central Station

The Corporate Blogging Show, my Internet radio show, is now airing weekly on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business. Showtime (tune in live) is Tuesdays at 12 noon Pacific. My first guest was Michael Sippey of TypePad.

Other guests lined up include Zane Safrit of Conference Calls Unlimited, Karen Wickre (editor of Google's corporate blog), Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Halley Suitt and Richard Edelman. The shows are available as podcasts at The Corporate Blogging Show blog.

Download Chapter 1 of The Corporate Blogging Book in Chinese

Thanks to Raven Lu Li, who lives in China and works for Accenture China, for translating Chapter 1 of my book into Chinese. Download Chapter 1 in Chinese.

TypePad's Book of the Month

The Corporate Blogging Book was TypePad's book of the month for October 2006. Listen to the podcast interview I did with Six Apart's Michael Sippey.

Live interview on Britain's Sky News

I was interviewed about corporate blogging in Sky News' London studio on October 20, 2006. Quite an experience as I'm kinda new at live TV. More…

Download the transcript of The Corporate Blogging Book teleconference

The Corporate Blogging Book Teleconference was a success. I might do it again. Nine participants each purchased five copies of my new book from 800-CEO-Read. We had a lively - and useful - discussion. Download the edited PDF transcript. More about the Q & A session here.

Readers are saying… The Corporate Blogging Book is "a great read"

Nielsen BuzzMetrics' Pete Blackshaw gives The Corporate Blogging Book a thumbs up in a thoughtful review on ClickZ.

A marketing manager from a Fortune 500 company writes in an email: "I read it cover-to-cover, highlighting phrases and dog-earing pages all the way through." More positive reviews and news here. Order on Amazon.

Need a Webinar on Corporate Blogging 101 or 201?

Call me at +1 202.364.5705 Eastern or email me at wordbiz(at)gmail.com. Learn more about how I can work with your organization to get you up to speed on the new social media tools.

Do you need a CEO Blogging Coach?

Bill Gates does. Get the scoop…